known to the Association, in addition to the usual certificates of church membership and theological studies.

The following resolutions were unanimously adopted :-

Resolved, That we believe the morality of the gospel extends to our social and political, as well as our religious duties, and that we are thereby as really required to use the power vested in us as citizens, against the sins of the age, as we are to pray against those sins.

Resolved, That we regard slaveholding as a sin against God, and a crime against man; and we deem it eminently the duty of the church. of Christ, to stand aloof from all connection with this sin, and protest by every christian means, against the principle of property in man.

Resolved, That fully believing in the justice and expediency of the principles of the prohibitory Liquor Law, as enacted by many of the States, we will do all in our power, as christian citizens and christian ministers, to secure the enactment of a similar Law in this Territory.

Resolved, That as the sanctification of the Sabbath is one of the firmest safe guards of Society, as well as one of the highest requirements of religion, we will use special effort to promote the public and social observance of the Sabbath day.

A Committee having been appointed to draft a system of regula tions for the government of the Territorial committee who shall be appointed to receive and disburse the $4000, presented the following report, which was adopted.

REPORT.

ON THE RULES FOR THE BUILDING FUND COMMITTEE.

1. This Committee shall choose their own officers, who shall be a President, Secretary and Treasurer.

2. This Committee shall be annually renewed by election by the Congregational Association of Minnesota, to continue in office until their successors are appointed, with power to fill vacancies. Three members of this committee shall constitute a quorum competent to transact business; and they shall make an annual report to the Association of their doings.

3. The Committee shall be regulated in appropriating the money, by the principles contained in the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th articles the Albany Convention, in relation to the church building fund. (See minutes of the Convention.)

4. No appropriation shall be made to a church until evidence is furnished that said church has a good title to its building lot, and that it has been incorporated according to law. Provided, however, a church is unable to obtain a title to their lot, they may receive the appropriation by giving sufficient security for the amount, until they have had a reasonable time for obtaining such title.

5. Every church applying for aid must give the name and location of the church or congregation, the number of members, both male and female, the name of its minister or stated supply, and the average number of attendants on public worship.

6. The amount to be appropriated to any church or society, will be paid to the order of the trustees, when the committee are satisfied that the house of worship has been completed agreeably to the terms of the appropriation.

7. In any case where payment in advance is necessary to secure the completion of the house of worship, a portion of the amount ap. propriated will be advanced on personal security, the whole amount to be paid and the security to be released when the house is completed.

8. Whatever portion of the $4000,00 shall not be required for immediate use, the Committee may loan on proper security, that they shall be able to avail themselves of it whenever wanted.

The Territorial Committee were now chosen, to take charge of the building fund, and attend to its disbursement in accordance with the above regulations. That Committee consists of

Rev. R. Hall, of Point Douglass; Rev. Charles Galpin, Lake Minnetonka; Rev. Charles Seccombe, St. Anthony; Hon. W. C. Hurd, Sauk Rapids; Mr. Charles King, St. Anthony.

After devotional exercises, the Association adjourned to meet at Point Douglass, on the last Thursday of January, at 7 P. M.

OREGON.

The history of Congregationalism on the Pacific coast begins with the embarkation of Rev. George H. Atkinson for Oregon, October 23, 1847, where he arrived on the 20th of the following June, having been detained nearly three months at the Sandwich Islands, awaiting an opportunity to obtain a passage to the mouth of the Columbia. In the autumn of 1848, a second missionary, Rev. Horace Lyman, was commissioned for this distant part of our home field, who commenced his labors at Portland, at the head of navigation on the Willamette River, and at present the most important place in the Territory. A church of twenty members has been organized, and a commodious church edifice erected at an expense of $6,400, and its influence is already widely felt in the cause of temperance, education, and every effort to promote the well-being of society.

Rev. George H. Atkinson, who is stationed at Oregon City, twelve miles above Portland, has spent a portion of his time the past year in an effort at the East to procure the endowment of two literary institutions, which are regarded as vital to the interests of the cause of education in the Territory. Not the least important among the manifold labors of the pioneers in this vast territory, have been their efforts to establish these and other institutions of learning, which, with the blessing of God, shall shed the light of science and religion over these shores for centuries to come.

The discovery of gold in California in 1848, produced an unsettled state of society in Oregon, very disastrous to the interests of the missions. The regular pursuits of life were sus

pended, and nearly the whole male population rushed to the mines, and when the crowd of adventurers began to return, other causes were in operation to scatter the population over the country, so that but a small number in most cases can be reached by cach missionary. Other laborers, however, have entered upon the field-Rev. Thomas Condon, in 1852, who is stationed at St. Helens, and Rev. Obed Dickenson at Salem. These brethren, with three others, whose names we have not been able to procure, and one new school Presbyterian, have formed themselves into a Congregational Association, and although these, with all their fellow-laborers of other Protestant denominations, can but ill supply the rapidly increasing population scattered along the shores of the Straits of De Fuca and Pugets Sound, amid the forests around the cascades of the Columbia, through the fertile valleys of the Cowlitz and the Willamette, on the banks of the Umpqua, and even to the boundary of California, they will cause many a region to shine in the light of truth, and exert an invaluable influence in moulding the character of this infant territory, and in laying the foundations of public order, intelligence and virtue.

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CALIFORNIA.

By the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, ratified May 30, 1848, Mexico ceded to the United States the Province of Upper California. This event added a vast area to our national domain, and imposed a new responsibility on the Home Missionary Society, as the organ of the churches in supplying the destitute portions of our country with the means of grace. Two missionaries were therefore commissioned for California in the autumn of 1848.

Before they had embarked for their field of labor, the astounding announcement was received which turned toward that land the attention of the whole civilized world. The golden treasures which had slumbered from the Creation, awaiting the occupancy of the soil by a free Protestant people, were suddenly disclosed; and from every civilized land, but most of all from our own shores, eager multitudes rushed to gather the golden harvest. Villages and cities sprang up, as by magic, along the river courses; and from an obscure Mexican province, it leaped forth a full grown State.

To follow these self-exiled thousands with the institutions of the gospel, which should mold the discordant elements thus thrown upon those shores into the forms of organized and christian society, was the appropriate work and evident duty of the Home Missionary Society; and although the treasury was empty, the Committee hesitated not to obey the summons, and in 1850 commissioned three additional laborers for this field. They were cordially received, and after a short period,